Green Bay News

GREEN BAY – There is a new option for housing for low-income families in the Green Bay area.
For the first time, the non-profit NeighborWorks has built a property from the ground up. And, the group is hoping to fill the townhomes with tenants soon.

The new housing is located at the corner of Mather and Ashland streets.
In a neighborhood of older homes, this new three-unit building stands-out.

“The city has cleared property here at the end of the block an old commercial building and a house that wasn’t rehab-able. And then we developed these townhomes here to really finish the project,” said NeighborWorks Executive Director Noel Halvorsen.

Halvorsen showed FOX 11 around.

“We’ve got three bedrooms up here. Here, and then two at the front. And then there’s another bathroom around the corner,” said Halvorsen.

This is the first building his group has built from scratch. It previously has rehabbed old houses. The housing is meant for lower-income families. The Housing and Urban Development department says that means a family of four that makes roughly $40,920 a year.

NeighborWorks says the rent will be on a sliding scale for income. But, it would average out at around 810 dollars a month. We looked at other listings to see how that price matches up.

We found most three bedroom, 1-and-one-half bath apartments for rent in Green Bay were going for nearly 100 dollars more a month.

“There are some rental properties that are available at low cost, but they’re awful. And there are some that are good, and you’ve got to have a mix of those things,” said Halvorsen.

Local leaders say they support NeighborWorks’ efforts to clean up the area.

“There aren’t’ many options for something like this at the price that it’s going to be available. I’m hoping NeighborWorks can just keep the wheels rolling,” said Randy Scannell, the alderman for district seven, where the new homes are located.

NeighborWorks says it will be taking applications soon, for future neighbors to call this place their new home.

The funding for the Mather Street Townhomes came in part from a Green Bay Redevelopment Authority Grant.

For more information, visit http://www.nwgreenbay.org or call 920-448-3075.

NEW LONDON – A stretch of Highway 45 in New London is closed while officials reconstruct a crash.

The roadway is closed between Highways 15 and 54.

Outagamie County officials said three people were transported to the hospital. They say it appears to have been a head on collision between two vehicles.

FOX 11 will have more details as they become available.

GREEN BAY – The northbound on-ramp of Atkinson Drive on Interstate 43 in Green Bay is closed off due to a tanker truck crash Thursday afternoon.

Drivers are asked to avoid the area.

Green Bay Police say the trailer became unhitched and so far, nothing is leaking.

Police say it could take a few hours to clear the roadway.

WESTON, WI – Three central Wisconsin sisters say they’re football fans now.

They, along with another boy, got to meet Aaron Rodgers, who surprised the kids during a video shoot for the Camp Hometown Heroes, a free week long camp for kids who have lost a loved one serving in the U.S. military.

You can watch the story below.

PHOENIX (AP) – Katy Perry says her Super Bowl halftime performance will make you “Roar” – with animals.

The singer told reporters at a press conference Thursday that her performance Sunday will include “a lion and sharks.”

Perry, 30, said she feels blessed to perform on the Super Bowl stage “at such a young age.” She said she enjoyed past Super Bowl performances from Beyoncé and Madonna, and what she adds “is some lightheartedness.”

Lenny Kravitz will join the pop star at the University of Phoenix Stadium in Arizona. Perry said her performance will also include an “old school” female singer.

When asked if Perry had been checking out football players this week, she imitated Seattle Seahawks running back Marshawn Lynch, saying: “I’m just here so I don’t get fined.”

MANITOWOC – The Manitowoc Co. plans to split up its cranes and foodservice businesses into separate companies.

Plans call for the foodservice business to be spun off. Both companies would be publicly traded.

According to Manitowoc Co. leaders, the cranes business reported $2.3 billion in 2014 revenue. Operating 37 facilities in 18 countires, its products include several types of cranes and boom trucks.

The foodservice business reported revenue of $1.6 billion in 2014. It produces commercial equipment for making ice and beverages; refrigeration; food prep and cooking. Last year, the company announced plans to lay off about 150 workers in Manitowoc as it moves production of a line of ice machines to Mexico.

Company leaders say the spinoff will allow each company to pursue its own strategies as well as attract its own base of investors.

MILWAUKEE — Paul Chryst wisely kept close tabs on recruits in his home state of Wisconsin while he was at Pittsburgh.

Now that he is coaching the Badgers, Chryst seems to be sliding comfortably back on to the recruiting trail back home with national signing day approaching.

“Certainly in Wisconsin, it’s a pride state,” said Gary Westerman, coach at Bay Port High School in Green Bay. “One thing in talking with coach Chryst, he said, ‘People in Wisconsin want to win football games, but they also want to know the name on the back of the jersey, too.'”

Not that Chryst and his staff aren’t looking beyond the Midwest for talent. That’s a must in a Big Ten Conference featuring national champion Ohio State and a Michigan program with new coach Jim Harbaugh.

“It’s important to me to recruit players and keep the players at home,” Chryst said in a phone interview during a recruiting trip. “And then certainly you supplement … the state of Wisconsin has never and won’t provide you all of your roster. You’ll go to different areas in getting kids.”

Chryst’s predecessor, Gary Andersen, also spoke of recruiting nationally while working hard to keep in-state players. He appeared to have good recruiting connections in the West after coaching at Utah State.

But Andersen surprised Wisconsin in early December when he left after two seasons to take the same job at Oregon State.

For whatever reason, Andersen didn’t seem to have quite the same connection to Wisconsin high school coaches as Chryst. Born in Madison, Chryst played at Wisconsin. He was offensive coordinator with the Badgers under Bret Bielema before taking the Pitt head-coaching job in 2012.

Certainly, Paul gets it,” Westerman said. “When he was at Pitt and the job opened, I sent him a text saying, ‘Coach, the guys in this state would love to have you back.'”

To Westerman, Andersen’s approach seemed to focus on recruiting nationally, and to recruit junior college players. Andersen wasn’t quite as visible to state prep coach as previous Wisconsin coaches, said Wisconsin Rapids High School coach Tony Biolo.

“Had he stayed a little bit longer, I think he would have gotten a better feel for that,” Biolo said.

Long-time Lancaster High School coach John Hoch, said the relationship between Wisconsin high school coaches and Andersen started out well, but in the end “wasn’t as smooth as we’ve probably seen at Wisconsin.”

Hoch, the Wisconsin AP’s High School coach of the Year in 2014, described Chryst’s in-state roots as important to helping being “able to keep a fence around” the state and top prospects.

Chryst can’t talk about incoming Badgers before players sign letters-of-intent with the school. The first day that can happen this recruiting year is next Wednesday.

High school seniors can talk all they want. At Bay Port, Alec Ingold switched his verbal commitment to the Badgers a month after Chryst arrived in Madison.

Chryst, while at Pittsburgh, recruited Ingold, Wisconsin’s AP High School Player of the Year. Instead of going to Northern Illinois to play quarterback, the athletic Ingold plans to enroll at Wisconsin to play linebacker and pursue an engineering degree.

Chryst’s credentials in overseeing potent offenses might help no matter where the coach is recruiting. Chryst’s last season as Wisconsin offensive coordinator in 2011 featured a high-scoring attack led by quarterback Russell Wilson and record-setting running back Montee Ball.

Ask about his recruiting philosophy, and Chryst will talk of finding the right fit, both on the part of the team and the prospective player.

“Our job is to know, in evaluation and talking to coaches – we need to know and be in on top of every prospect in the state,” Chryst said. “Ideally, we’d like to keep every kid that can play in the Big Ten.”

In the end, coaches want to get a feel that the Badgers are keeping tabs on the state’s best recruits, said Biolo, who is also president-elect of the Wisconsin Football Coaches Association.

“That’s all high school coaches look for. High school coaches want the best for UW,” Biolo said. “Every one of them wants their kids to play there.”

MILWAUKEE (AP) – An 18-year-old Milwaukee man who says he accidentally shot his brother is now charged with negligent homicide.

Dennis J. Jackson faces a felony count of homicide by negligent handling of a dangerous weapon.

Jackson’s brother, 23-year-old Leroy Smith, died Monday at a house in Milwaukee. According to the criminal complaint, witnesses told police that Jackson had said he shot Smith by accident.

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports when police first questioned Jackson, he denied handling a gun or shooting his brother, until detectives indicated what others had said.

Then Jackson told detectives he was trying to unjam a handgun when the gun fired, striking Smith.

Online court records do not list a defense attorney. Jackson remains in jail.

WASHINGTON (AP) – The Republican-controlled Senate on Thursday approved a bipartisan bill to construct the Keystone XL oil pipeline, defying a presidential veto threat and setting up the first of many battles with the White House over energy and the environment.

The 62-36 vote advanced a top priority of the newly empowered GOP, and marked the first time the Senate passed a bill authorizing the pipeline, despite numerous attempts to force President Barack Obama’s hand on the issue. Nine Democrats joined with 53 Republicans to back the measure.

Still the vote was short of the threshold needed to override a veto, and the legislation still must be reconciled with the version the House passed.

This bill “is an important accomplishment for the country,” said Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky. “We are hoping the president upon reflection will agree to sign on to a bill that the State Department said could create up to 42,000 jobs and the State Department said creates little to no impact on the environment.”

Democrats framed the bill as gift to a foreign oil company that would have little benefit for the American people, because much of the oil would be exported. They tried and failed to get amendments on the bill to construct the pipeline with U.S. steel, ban exports of the oil and the products refined from it, and protect water resources.

The Senate agreed to add an energy efficiency measure, and went on the record saying climate change was not a hoax and the oil sands should be subject to a tax that helps pay for oil spill cleanups. Oil sands are currently exempt.

“This bill is a disgrace,” said Sen. Barbara Boxer, the top Democrat on the Senate environment committee. “We tried on our side to make this a better bill and they turned us away.”

First proposed in 2008, the $8 billion pipeline project has been beset by delays in Nebraska over its route and at the White House, where the president has resisted prior efforts by Congress to force him to make a decision. In 2012, Obama rejected the project after Congress attached a measure to a payroll tax cut extension that gave him a deadline to make a decision. The pipeline’s developer, TransCanada Corp., then reapplied.

Obama has said he will not be forced to make a decision on the pipeline, which requires presidential approval because it crosses an international border, until the review process concludes. Federal agencies’ comments on whether the project is in the national interest are due Monday.

Environmental groups have called on Obama to reject the project outright, saying it would make it easier to tap a dirty source of energy that would exacerbate global warming. The State Department’s analysis, assuming higher oil prices, found that shipping it by pipelines to rail or tankers would be worse for the planet.

Supporters say the pipeline is a critical piece of infrastructure that will create thousands of jobs during construction and boost energy security by importing oil from a friendly neighbor.

ALLOUEZ – Students at Webster Elementary School in Allouez will now be able to continue making music.

Five keyboards will be loaned by Heid Music to students who do not have one at home.

Webster Elementary is among schools using integrated arts in its teaching.

The Fine Arts program coordinator, Lucinda Roberts, says this allows children to practice what they learn in the classroom, “We do have a percentage of students that can’t afford a piano, and so what’s exciting is that new for the students that we just didn’t have enough keyboards to provide earlier this year, we now can make up that deficit and provide an instrument so they can practice. They’ll get the improvement that they are hoping to achieve and overall just continue to build and grow their abilities playing piano and the excitement of being a musician.”

Roberts says that since starting the integrated arts program, the school has seen an increase in student attendance and engagement.

GREEN BAY –  An Illinois man prosecutors say was the ringleader in a large heroin operation in Brown County is headed to trial.

Investigators tell FOX 11 say during the course of a large-scale drug bust that began last summer, they arrested 36 people, 32 on heroin-related charges.

Jafari Mahonie faces 10 felony charges of delivering heroin. The charges are in connection with what prosecutors have called the largest heroin conspiracy the area has ever seen.

FOX 11 learned Thursday Mahonie’s attorney has filed several motions. He’s asking to the court to suppress some evidence and force prosecutors to reveal the name of a confidential informant. Those motions were not argued in court.

The cases were completely under seal for months because authorities used wiretaps to record secret conversations. FOX 11 went to court to get the records released. At that point, even the names and the charges against the suspects were being withheld. Last month, a judge in the case granted our request releasing portions of the case files. Any information in connection with the wiretaps remains protected under state law.

Thursday, defense attorney John Birdsall also raised concerns that he doesn’t have evidence from prosecutors on how Mahonie’s wiretap was obtained.

“I never got, there was a wiretap in this case, and I have exhaustively looked through discovery and I don’t see the wiretap for his phone. I see several other wiretaps applications and orders, but I don’t see one for his phone and I sent them a request specifically delineating that, so I don’t know if you could speak with Ms. Lemkuil about that and have her email that to me – may be the subject of another motion, maybe not,” said Birdsall.

Mahonie’s trial is set for mid-April.

His attorney declined to comment after court. So did the prosecutor.

So far, three of the suspects in the alleged ring have been convicted after pleading no contest to charges against them. None have been sentenced yet.

MILFORD, Pa. (AP) – A survivalist who spent more than a month on the run after authorities say he killed one Pennsylvania State Police trooper and wounded another in a late-night ambush pleaded not guilty Thursday, setting the stage for a trial at which prosecutors will seek to put him on death row.

Eric Frein, 31, was arraigned at the Pike County Courthouse in Milford. He participated by video from the county prison, looking into the camera and politely answering questions posed to him by his attorney and the judge.

Asked by defense lawyer Michael Weinstein whether he understood a not-guilty plea would be entered on his behalf, Frein answered in a clear, calm voice: “That’s what I wish.”

Frein is charged with first-degree murder, terrorism and other offenses in the Sept. 12 ambush that killed Cpl. Bryon Dickson and severely wounded Trooper Alex Douglass outside the police barracks in Blooming Grove.

Frein led authorities on a 48-day manhunt in the rugged Pocono Mountains of northeastern Pennsylvania before U.S. marshals captured him at an abandoned airplane hangar, more than 20 miles from the shooting scene.

District Attorney Ray Tonkin filed notice this week that he will seek the death penalty, listing aggravating factors that include the killing of a police officer.

Weinstein said outside court Thursday that there has been no discussion of a plea.

“It’s very early in this case,” he said, adding that the district attorney “hasn’t seen what we can produce, and we certainly haven’t seen the discovery, so I wouldn’t anticipate that he would start talking about resolution to this case.”

Tonkin told reporters the death penalty is “important in this case,” adding he’s not considering a plea “at this point in time.”

Authorities have said Frein confessed to what he described as an assassination designed to “wake people up” and result in a change in government and the restoration of liberties.

His trial is tentatively scheduled for March, but Weinstein does not expect it to happen until 2016.

One of many issues that will likely need to be resolved is where to hold the trial, with the defense considering a request to move it to another county.

The ambush and subsequent manhunt drew blanket media coverage, and residents were both frightened and inconvenienced as law enforcement officials from around the nation descended on the rural region to look for the trooper’s killer.

“There’s no question that venue’s an issue,” Weinstein said. “We don’t want to pretend it’s not.”

DETROIT (AP) – Hundreds of Detroit homeowners in danger of losing their properties flocked Thursday to hearings that offered a last-ditch chance to avoid foreclosure and to keep the houses from adding to the city’s already huge glut of vacant dwellings.

The homeowners nearly filled a long conference room in Detroit’s Cobo Center while waiting for their cases to be heard. Many hoped to work out payment plans to ease their tax debts under new laws signed this month by Gov. Rick Snyder.

“Everybody does have a story. Most of them are probably true, because you couldn’t make them up if you try,” said Eric Sabree, Wayne County’s deputy treasurer of land management. Officials expect more than 14,000 property owners to seek help over seven days of hearings that run through Feb. 6.

“We have to collect taxes by law … but we definitely do not want to take the property,” Sabree said. “We want to show options that people have to save their properties.”

More than 60,000 of the county’s 76,000 foreclosed properties are in Detroit, threatening neighborhoods that have yet to recover from the national mortgage crisis.

Laws signed earlier this month by Republican Gov. Rick Snyder allow homeowners facing financial hardship to seek a payment plan.

About $326 million in taxes, interest and fees are owed on the foreclosed homes, lots and other buildings in Detroit. Mapping data shows that about 37,000 of those properties are occupied.

“One of the reasons why we want people to stay in their homes is because when they become abandoned, they get stripped. They become a crime scene. They become a drug house,” Sabree said. “It’s better to let the person stay in the house and collect taxes even if it takes longer to collect the money.”

Mourice Neal was looking for just a little help. His tax bill is $4,900 on a home he bought in 2013 on Detroit’s North End. Paying that amount would dangerously stretch what he receives in Social Security payments.

“It’s a good process. They are looking at my income,” said Neal, who is 46.

But Thomas Jackson left his hearing without knowing if anything could be done with the $27,000 tax bill on his home in northwest Detroit. He said he was told special consideration was needed to get a payment plan. He has another hearing next month.

“They told me they can’t help me here,” said Jackson, 40, who has not paid taxes on his home since 2012, when he lost his automotive job.

He has since found a new job and wants to keep the house he bought in 2009, but said losing it would not be the end of the world.

“I’m working now. I can find somewhere else,” he said.

Regina Lee, 50, went to the hearing ready to pay the $1,200 owed on two lots that sandwich the home she grew up in. She said she was unaware her now-deceased grandmother listed her as owner of the lots until a relative received a foreclosure notice from the county.

“That’s my grandmother’s legacy,” Lee said. “I guess she put my name on them for a reason. I’m hoping that I can pay to keep them or do a down payment.”

WASHINGTON – Ever since the Arab spring took flight more than 4 years ago, a very anxious world has been casting an eye on an extremely unstable Middle East.

In less than a week, extreme jihadists ignite the near east, ISIL prisoner talks with Jordan, Shitte uprisings in Yemen, ISIL militants kill 9 people in Tripoli. All this while the U.S. tries to secure this seemingly lawless region.

Kamal Nawash from the Free Muslims Coalition said, “We certainly need to attack ISIS, we have no choice.”

While Brigitte Gabriel, President of “Act for America” says, “Follow the advice of the generals instead of following the wishful thinking of the White House. What we need to do is let the generals do their job.”

The U.S. oil rich ally of Saudi Arabia is now surrounded by extremist volatility. To it’s east, profound instability in Pakistan and Afghanistan, Shitte rebels in Yemen, are linked to the Shiite land of Iraq where ISIL hides in plain sight.

ISIL’s tentacles also have a stronghold in Syria. Sudan to t he west is tight with Shiite led Iran, and has terrorist intelligence gathering networks for nations like Libya, Somalia, and Nigeria.

Historians agree they have never seen the near east plunge into such chaos like this since the Six-Day War in 1967.

Experts say the only solution for the U.S. is to help the Islamic world eradicate extreme jihadists. But the ultimate solution must come from the global Muslim population itself.

”Once they see, they’ll throw these people or dump them into the dumpsters of history, the trash bins of history,” said Nawash.

A herculean task for peaceful Muslims worldwide and the United States, as an anxious world awaits the next catastrophe in the near east.

But untested Saudi  leader following the death of King Abdullah last week will immediately be  tested, especially in the rogue nation of Yemen, on the southern tip of the Arabian peninsula.

TURTLE LAKE (AP) – Authorities in western Wisconsin are trying to find the vehicle that struck and killed a pedestrian on a highway.

The crash was reported just before 7:30 a.m. Thursday on Highway 8 near Upper Turtle Lake, between Almena and Turtle Lake. The pedestrian, identified as 26-year-old Logan Paulson, died at the scene.

The Barron County Sheriff’s Department says Paulson, who lived in the area, was walking along Highway 8 when the vehicle struck him and left the scene sometime during the night.

The vehicle is described as white. Authorities don’t know the make and model.

The Wisconsin State Patrol is reconstructing the crash scene. Anyone with information is asked to call the Barron County Sheriff’s Department.

For a printable PDF of this study guide, click here.

GREEN BAY – The Midwest has a passion for romantic movies and Redbox gives the “most romantic city” title to Green Bay .

According to a survey, Redbox customers in Green Bay rented the most romantic movies in the U.S. through the company’s kiosks in 2014. Wisconsin also ranked number two in the state category, behind Michigan in the number one spot.

The survey also found Oregon residents are less likely to rent romantic movies than any other state and the least “romantic city” was Midland, Texas.

The top ten cities that rent the most romantic movies are:
1.       Green Bay, Wis.
2.       Evansville, Ind.
3.       Lansing, Mich.
4.       Mankato, Minn.
5.       Zanesville, OH
6.       Ames, IA
7.       Rochester, Minn.
8.       Grand Rapids-Kalamazoo, Mich.
9.       Toledo, OH
10.   Lima, OH

The top ten states that rent the most romantic movies are:

1.    Michigan
2.    Wisconsin
3.    Indiana
4.    Iowa
5.    Louisiana
6.    Kentucky
7.    Mississippi
8.    South Dakota
9.    Alabama
10.  Ohio

The survey also indicated “The Notebook” is the most romantic movie of all-time, followed by “Titanic” and “Pretty Woman.”

The Redbox survey polled 8,700 Redbox customers nationwide via email in January 2015. City and state data based on romantic-movie rentals is proportional to total rentals per location.

MADISON (AP) – A Republican lawmaker is calling for dramatic changes in Gov. Scott Walker’s budget plan for the University of Wisconsin System.

Walker has proposed slashing the system’s budget by $300 million, freezing tuition for two years and decoupling the system from state oversight.

Sen. Steve Nass of Whitewater, one of the system’s toughest critics and vice-chair of the Senate’s universities committee, has warned the plan would allow regents to raise tuition at will starting in 2017.

Nass issued a news release Thursday calling for shortening regent appointments from seven years to three, saying that would improve accountability. He also called for capping tuition increases at the rate of inflation.

Walker’s plan is far from final. The Legislature will spend months revising it before the Senate and Assembly vote on it.

For a printable PDF of this study guide, click here.

For a printable PDF of this study guide, click here.